Body Language Expert, Professional Speaker, Author, Media Authority, Spokes Person, Corporate Consultant, Trainer and Coach.
Patti speaks to Fortune 500 Companies, Associations, and Universities on: Body Language, Deception Detection, Selling, Interviewing, Public Speaking, First Impressions, Conflict Management and more.
She also consults with Law Enforcement and the Media on the Body Language of Celebrities, Politicians and Suspects.
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Why Cosmetics Work: More Depth To Facial Differences Between Men And Women Than PresumedScienceDaily (Oct. 21, 2009) — Beauty might seem to be only skin deep, but Gettysburg College Psychology Professor Richard Russell has found that there is more depth to facial differences between men and women than presumed.

In a study published in Perception, Russell demonstrated the existence of a facial contrast difference between the two genders. By measuring photographs of men and women, he found that female faces have greater contrast between eyes, lips, and surrounding skin than do male faces. This difference in facial contrast was also found to influence our perception of the gender of a face.

Regardless of race, female skin is known to be lighter than male skin. But Russell found that female eyes and lips are not lighter than those of males, which creates higher contrast of eyes and lips on women's faces. By experimenting with an androgynous face, Russell learned that faces can be manipulated to appear female by increasing facial contrast or to appear male by decreasing facial contrast.

"Though people are not consciously aware of the sex difference in contrast, they unconsciously use contrast as a cue to tell what sex a face is," Russell said. "We also use the amount of contrast in a face to judge how masculine or feminine the face is, which is related to how attractive we think it is."

Given this sex difference in contrast, Russell found a connection between the application of cosmetics and how it consistently increases facial contrast. Female faces wearing cosmetics have greater facial contrast than the same faces not wearing cosmetics. Russell noted that female facial beauty has been closely linked to sex differences, with femininity considered attractive. His results suggest that cosmetics may function in part by exaggerating a sexually dimorphic attribute to make the face appear more feminine and attractive.

"Cosmetics are typically used in precisely the correct way to exaggerate this difference, " Russell said. "Making the eyes and lips darker without changing the surrounding skin increases the facial contrast. Femininity and attractiveness are highly correlated, so making a face more feminine also makes it more attractive."

In the photo, "Illusion of Sex," two faces are perceived as male and female. However, both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face. One face was created by increasing the contrast of the androgynous face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male. This demonstrates that contrast is an important cue for perceiving the sex of a face, with greater contrast appearing feminine, and lesser contrast appearing masculine.

Russell earned a bachelor's degree from Pomona College majoring in neuroscience and worked as a research assistant doing functional neuroimaging at Cambridge University. He received a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard University. His research interests are in visual cognition, aesthetics, and the perception

A reporter from the Norwegian leading daily asked me to contribute to an article about the body language of Norway's oil and energy Secretary of State. My response is below the request and video he sent.

He has got a lot of criticism for the past months, and his popularity is not good at the moment."Would you be kind to watch this clip from the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, and tell us what you see in Secretary of State, Terje Riis-Johansen's body language. How do you read him?" "He is the man at the left. The other one is a political commentator. I guess you don't know the language, but that is kind of the idea behind this request." Here is the video

To give a complete read I would need to know what questions he is responding to and his nonverbal cues in response to the questions and as he answers.Having said that. Here is what I noticed. He came in sat down and immediately crossed his arms in what I call the castle wall position and kept them there.That is odd for any interview if you are comfortable and confident you keep your limps apart and your heart in view. He also hunches over further protecting himself in a defense position. It is obvious something is going on at the 1:51 mark or so on the video. His voice get more tense and he is hurling his response out as if they wear fighting fists.The commentator gets a bit patronizing. Look at his mouth at 2:02. If you do a screen grab of that moment you will see his mouth turned down and held shut very tightly so that the chin wrinkles. That is suppressed anger. He hold his face in that position longer that a open exposed emotion would play across the face. Look closely at the eyes. There is anger there too. It is interesting that most people in this facial position believe they are showing a neutral facial expression. There is something else going on at 4:48 or so that he feels strongly about his voice get more staccato and he wants to emphasize a point.Hopefully that is helpful for you. If there is another moment of the tape you would like me to watch let me know. I would love to know what was being discussed at those point.

Patti Wood, body language expert for OK Weekly Magazine, weighs in on Demi Moore's and Ashton Kutcher's body language. Nothing is being put on for the camera.........they're not acting! What are the cues that Patti sees that make her say, "It's still there!"Check the link to find out!